Just a stepping stone... A woman models Google
Glass, which is being trialled across the U.S. Google hopes one day to
use microchips in users' brains

Online advertising giant Google's new
wearable accessories are merely a stepping stone to its ultimate
ambition - a microchip which can be embedded in users' brains.The
company, which uses its search, email and other services to funnel
personalised advertising to users, is currently trialling prototypes of
its Glass device, which is worn like a pair of glasses. But
Google is staking its future on a new service which will use the
information it holds on registered users to automatically predict their
search needs and present them with the data they want.The
ultimate ambition is to literally get inside users' heads: using search
queries to read their thoughts and then fulfilling their data needs by
sending results directly to microchips implanted into people's brains. Ben Gomes, Google's Vice-President of Search told The Independent that
the sinister-sounding vision is far from a sci-fi fantasy and that
research had already begun with such chips to help disabled people steer
their wheelchairs.'They
are getting a few senses of direction with the wheelchair but getting
from there to actual words is a long ways off,' he said.'We
have to do this in the brain a lot better to make that interaction
possible. We have impatience for that to happen but the pieces of
technology have to develop.'But
standing in the way of this ambition is a major civil liberties
backlash over claims that Google has conspired with U.S. authorities to
open a 'back door' to data it holds on its hundreds of millions of
users, allowing spies to monitor their online activities. The
company, whose 'Don't be evil' motto has long attracted derision from
privacy campaigners, is alleged to have allowed analysts from the
National Security Agency to 'mine' the terabytes of personal information
it holds.